TORA BORA, Afghanistan - US and Afghan forces were in hot pursuit of Saudi-born militant Osama bin Laden overnight after flushing his al Qaeda fighters out of their last bastion in Afghanistan.
With bin Laden's whereabouts a mystery but his options diminishing, troops from neighbouring Pakistan patrolled the Afghan border to prevent the man Washington blames for the September 11 suicide attacks slipping across.
Backed by overwhelming US air power and British and American commandos on the ground, Afghan fighters overran the mountain redoubt of eastern Tora Bora, which is riddled with caves and tunnels.
US officials said as many as 2,000 bin Laden loyalists, who refused the option of surrender, had fled into the surrounding mountains.
"We've destroyed al Qaeda in Afghanistan and we have ended the role of Afghanistan as a haven for terrorist activity," said US Secretary of State Colin Powell.
He said bin Laden's effectiveness in Afghanistan had been destroyed but the man himself, whom President Bush wants dead or alive, remained at large.
"We have no reason to believe that he has been either killed or captured. We don't know where he is," Powell said.
"We of course want Osama bin Laden, and as President Bush said, we will get him. Whether we get him this week, next week, whether it takes us one year or two years, we will bring him to justice or justice will be brought to him," he said.
- REUTERS
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US forces pursue bin Laden as al Qaeda routed
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